Building Walls and Bridging Communities: A Week of Volunteer Action in Didsbury Park
UPDATE NOTICE 1: CURRY NIGHT
After a quick check with volunteers at the coffee break today we now have 27 probables plus 7 possibles interested in a curry evening at the Sangam in Didsbury on Thursday 23rd November. On this basis I will go ahead, this week, and hold some discussions with the restaurant about the menu and potential costs. I will update everybody as soon as I have firmed up any details. If you have not let me know already and you would still like to come along will you please let me know as soon as possible.
UPDATE NOTICE 2: SPIRIT OF MANCHESTER AWARDS
I feel very honoured and humbled by the fact that unknown to me, two members of the Friends of Didsbury Park have entered me into this year's Spirit of Manchester Awards. I have been informed by the awards committee that I have been shortlisted on a list of 3 people for the award. The awards take place on THURSDAY this week (i.e. 5th October) starting at 7pm. The award goes to the person with the most votes on the night from people at the awards ceremony and from people who dial in. The way it works is that each of the 3 candidates is shown on a 1 minute video clip and then the vote takes place in a 30 second window. I have been informed that the category I am in is currently 3rd in the schedule so it will be very close to the beginning of the awards event at 7pm.
These are the instructions I have received from the organisers:
Hi Brian,
There are set times for each vote. They will take place directly after the 3 videos have been shown for those shortlisted in that category. The vote will be held for around 30 seconds to allow people time watching from home to get their vote in. We then receive the result and the winner is announced before we move on to the next category. On the night, we will run a test of the voting system to allow people to have a go first and make sure they know how to use it.
People can vote for who they would like to win on the night of the awards via Slido. This will all be shown how to use and a practice run will take place in the room and online on the evening. For those in the room or watching via our livestream here, you can vote for each category. Please share the livestream with anyone who would like to take part in the vote but will not be attending the event in person
If you have a few spare minutes on Thursday evening I would appreciate it if you would dial in and vote for me please.
UPDATE NOTICE 3: NORTHWEST IN BLOOM AWARDS
You may recall that a judge from the RHS visited us back in July to judge us in the Northwest in Bloom Competition. We have now heard that the awards will be announced at an event in Bolton on Tuesday 17th October. The event is scheduled to start at 1030am and end at 4pm. Free coach transport is available from Didsbury but there is a charge of £15 for a ticket for the event which includes a light lunch. Usually either myself or David and Brenda attend these events on behalf of FoDP but this year unfortunately none of us are available. If you would like to attend to represent FoDP then please just let me know and I can provide further details.
UPDATE NOTICE 4: DIDSBURY PARK BEING TARGETTED AGAIN BY ANTI-SOCIAL BEHAVIOUR
It is heartbreaking to have to report again that despite additional police patrols, the park is still being targeted by youths undertaking escalating levels of violent anti-social behaviour. During the last week we have had lots of broken glass in the children's playground, drug canisters left lying about, the childrens trampoline broken (see picture 1), the setting off of 'Public- Display-Only, fireworks close to houses at 11pm at night, and another machete / axe attack upon one of our carved woodland animals (see picture 2). The authorities have been informed of all these incidents.
The good news is that within 12 hours of hearing about the damaged trampoline, the MCC team led by Kevin Shackell, had completely repaired the children's trampoline (see picture 3)
The other good news is that Denise and Geoff are on the case of repairing the woodland carving BUT they are still searching for the fox's ear which was hacked off. If you come across it, can you please let me know?
LAST FRIDAY - A NEW SMALL RETAINING WALL IS BUILT IN THE PARK
Following the completion of the work to repair the Flower Walk wall, I am pleased to report that the builders returned to the park on Friday last week, as a special 'volunteer from industry day' to build a small retaining wall for us. Using attractive cobble sets, provided by MCC, Tony and Hamza, the builders, produced a lovely little wall which blends in beautifully with the old Flower Walk wall behind. Picture 4 shows Tony and Hamza, part way through the build, and picture 5 shows the wall looking great, after completion. Thank you Tony and Hamza.
Last Friday our Park Ranger, Tony, also worked alongside the builders as he was laying tarmac over the dangerous potholes at the edges of the path. Thank you for this great support Tony.
TODAY
We had a really good turnout of 37 volunteers in the park this morning. We were all pleased to see Gareth, with his 1 year old twins, especially as he insisted on doing a good hour litter picking whilst wheeling them around the park in the pram. Young Alexander and mother Joanna, also joined us to do a lot of litter picking today.
All this morning's litter pickers complained about the lack of litter in the park today which in a way is really good news although I suspect this may have had something to do with Brenda and Will having given the park a good clean up earlier in the morning. We were also pleased to see Shreyash, from Manchester University, returning for the second time, and Roger with us for the second week running. We also met Akinde for the first time as a volunteer from NatWest. Everybody was made very welcome.
We had a lot of work scheduled for today so I was very grateful when Bettina offerred to take over photographic duties. Thank you Bettina.
TODAY - DELIVERY OF TIMBER
It was all 'hands to the pump' once again first thing today. We were expecting a large delivery of kick fencing timber and so we had to make sure that it could be safely stored in the volunteers shelter. As people arrived this morning everybody joined in to make sure we had sufficient storage space for the new timber and then when the delivery lorry arrived mid-morning it was a case of stopping what we were doing and help to unload it.
Pictures 6, 7 and 8 show some of the team hard at work moving timbers. It was an amazing piece of work. It was done so well that there seemed to be more space in the shelter after the delivery than before, due to clever re-organisation. A huge thank you to everybody who helped.
TODAY - TRIANGULAR FLOWER BED AND ROSE BEDS
Picture 9 shows Gill B and Jude doing a great job weeding and tidying up the triangular flower bed whilst being observed by some of the children from a local primary school who were on a nature visit to the park.
Having completed this task Gill B and Jude were joined by Gill N and then moved on the the nearby rose beds. Bettina then took advantage of the dry weather to paint the kick fencing around the triangular bed with another coat of preservative. This was great team effort and made a huge improvement to the way these flower beds looked. Thank you all.
TODAY - FLOWER BEDS NEAR THE BIRD GARDEN
Last week's successful team of Roger and Tristan carried on their work of tidying and weeding the flower beds alongside the Bird Garden. After coffee they were joined by Greg and Leslie and together this team made a huge improvement to the look of this flower bed. Thank you all.
TODAY - FLOWER BEDS NEAR THE WILD FLOWER MEADOW
Picture 10 shows an action shot of Mike busy tidying up the flower bed, next to the wild flower meadow, ready for winter. Thank you Mike. Great job.
TODAY - FLOWER WALK
Picture 11 shows Diane, Julie, Kevin and Ilma continuing the weekly battle with the bindweed among the lovely herbacious plants in the flower beds along the Flower Walk.
Picture 12 shows Suborno working further along the Flower Walk. Murray and Lucy also worked along this section and between them this large team made a great improvement. Thank you.
TODAY - FLOWER WALK (REPAIRED WALL SECTION) - PREPARATION OF SOIL AND REPAIRING DANGEROUS PATH
The preparation work on this section of the Flower Walk is very much on the critical path of the Autumn planting schedule. The next stage for the work on the soil today involved the removal of the building debris from the top layer of soil. Picture 13 shows Shreyash and Dominique who, along with teammate Dan did an excellent job to remove much of the builders debris.
The other piece of work in this area involves the joint work with MCC to re-install the edging tiles and tarmac the potholes to make the path safe again. Some good progress was made today by Richard, Gary and Carl N to install more edging tiles along the most damaged section of the path. Great job. Thank you.
TODAY - SANDHURST ROAD ENTRANCE
Picture 14 shows Akinde (aka Toks) and Sonia who did some excellent work trimming the hedging and pruning the bushes to improve the Sandhurst Road entrance. Thank you both
TODAY - GILLBROOK ROAD ENTRANCE
Picture 15 shows Brenda proudly displaying amazingly pristine looking footpaths around the Gillbrook Road entrance. Super work Brenda - thank you.
Thank you everyone for the huge amount of work we completed today and for your continued amazing support.